We are thinking of taking The Oxford & the Cotswolds Explorer Day with London Walks. www.walks.com. Anyone have experience with this company? Their walks and explorer day trips sound interesting. You just show up and join the group, no reservations needed.

London Walks does a good job both with their walks and their Explorer Days. I've done nearly 4 dozen of their walks. I would also recommend the evening pub walks. Some other good walks are Eccentric London, Secret London and the Beatles walks.

As you noted, no reservations are needed. If you plan on doing more than 2 walks buy the discount walk card for one extra GBP and you will save money on each walk. It is the equivalent of every 5th walk is free. They are great introductions to London and will take you into places you may not have seen on your own.

I'm not up to date with the Oxford and Cotswold trip but 'in my day' it ran ona Thursday and you met at Paddington then took the train to Oxford.Richard, wonderful chap, did the guiding. At Oxford railway station you boarded a coach which then took you westwards to the Cotswolds. Taking the Windrush valley route you would first visit Minster Lovell and take a guided walk around the village, culminating with a visit to the 15th century ruins of Minster Lovell Hall. Back on the bus for a scenic drive to Burford for a lunch break then another country drive back to Oxford for a walking tour of the colleges and some free time.
That is how it was regularly done a few years back but times and itineraries may have changed. Still for value and excellent guides you couldn't put a foot wrong (if you'll pardon the pun) on all their walks.

Richard, who usually leads that walk, led the one I took to Salisbury & Stonehenge. He is my favorite guide of the 6 London Walks I have been on.

My only complaint with S&S was there was too many people, about 60.

Keith

We did this walk summer before last and it was as henneth describes. Really enjoyed it.

If the itinerary is as henneth and LAwoman describe it would be lovely. I don't usually recommend day trips to places like the Cotswolds because it is an area you need to slow down and smell the roses - and it is best to be there after the day trippers leave in the afternoons. But neither Minster Lovell or Burford are day tripper-type places.

Minster Lovell, Burford and a country drive back into Oxford is a reasonable and not rushed route. You won't be seeing any of the "iconic" Cotswolds villages that are mentioned on here all the time - but the Old Hall is a lovely ruin on the banks of the river Windrush and also has a fascinating Dovecote. Burford is a lively little town with a wonderful wool church and good shopping/pubs/tea rooms, etc.

It would be better if you could take an overnight trip and have more time to explore - but this is a good way to get your toe in the water.

And you can see a good bit of Oxford on a 2 hour walking tour plus some free time.

Although we didn't do this particular walk, we did a number of London Walks on our first visit to London last month. We enjoyed the first so much we did at least one a day for the rest of our week's stay. I especially enjoyed the night walks-didn't expect we would find so much to do in the evenings in January! They have so many choices every day I think there's a walk to suit almost everybody.

~Liz